1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a paper feeding mechanism, and more particularly to a paper feeding mechanism capable of improving a paper feeding speed.
2. The Related Art
Referring to FIG. 8, a paper feeding mechanism used in an office equipment, such as a scanner or a multi-functional peripheral, generally includes a transporting mechanism and a pickup mechanism. The transporting mechanism includes a transporting motor 71, and a plurality of transporting wheels 72 driven by the transporting motor 71. The pickup mechanism includes a pickup motor 81, a separation wheel 82 and a pickup wheel 83 driven by the pickup motor 81. When a piece of paper needs to be fed into the office equipment, if there is no paper located under the pickup wheel 83, the pickup motor 81 drives the pickup wheel 83 to pick up papers, and then drives the separation wheel 82 to separate the papers into the transporting mechanism. Finally, the transporting motor 71 drives the transporting wheels 72 to feed one piece of paper into the paper feeding mechanism. If there are some papers remained under the pickup wheel 83 after feeding the one piece of paper into the paper feeding mechanism in the last time, the pickup motor 81 drives the separation wheel 82 to separate the papers into the transporting mechanism, then the transporting motor 71 drives the transporting wheels 72 to ensure another one piece of paper to be fed into the paper feeding mechanism.
However, in the process of feeding the papers into the paper feeding mechanism, the separation wheel 82 and the pickup wheel 83 are driven by the pickup motor 81 to sometimes rotate and sometimes stop. When there are some papers remained under the pickup wheel 83 after feeding the one piece of paper into the paper feeding mechanism in the last time, the transporting motor 71 could keep driving the transporting wheels 72 to feed another one piece of paper into the paper feeding mechanism, but the pickup motor 81 need be restarted to drive the separation wheel 82 to separate the papers into the transporting mechanism. As a result, a rotating speed of the separation wheel 82 is different from that of the transporting wheel 72 so that results in a time interval between each two pieces of papers fed to the paper feeding mechanism. Furthermore, the separation wheel 82 will cause a time delay from restarting to accelerating the pickup motor 81 that further increases the time interval between each two pieces of papers fed to the paper feeding mechanism and lowers a paper feeding speed. Moreover, if another driving motor is specially used to drive the separation wheel 82, cost of electricity and components of the paper feeding mechanism will increase, and the paper feeding mechanism will occupy a larger space in the office equipment.